ImpactAlpha, November 30 — Spring Impact Capital is looking to raise CAD $20 million ($14.7 million) to invest in two dozen early stage health and climate tech founders in Canada. The Vancouver-based venture fund is the first investment vehicle of Spring, an impact accelerator aiming to democratize impact investing in Canada.
Since 2014, Spring has incubated over 2,000 entrepreneurs, with funding from roughly 900 accredited and non-accredited angel investors.
With the launch of Spring Impact Capital, “We saw an opportunity to really build on that experience and momentum that we have been creating to support ventures, in particular, at the intersection of climate and health,” Spring’s Keith Ippel told ImpactAlpha. More than 10 limited partners have committed to the fund’s first close, said Ippel.
Return on inclusion
The fund will invest through an inclusion lens, targeting women, Black and other founders of color. In recent founder competitions and programs at Spring, Ippel said more than half of funding have gone to such underrepresented founders.
“When we’re thinking about digital health, mental health, sustainable food and agriculture,” said Ippel, “these are all areas where I think there’s an opportunity for venture funds to step more boldly into ensuring access for underrepresented communities.”
Portfolio management
Spring Impact Capital plans to write checks of $250,000 at the pre-seed and seed stages, with up to $750,000 reserved for follow-on funding. The fund combines financing for founders with wraparound services based on Spring’s past accelerator programs.
The goal is to get portfolio companies to the Series-A stage, at which point they’ll have already “unlocked product market fit, business model market fit and lock in their impact models,” said Ippel.
